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Re: 2014 die off

I bought my queens from honey-4-all which is why I posted in the first place. My location is also pretty close to beeghost who is a friend of mine. You guys maybe right but I still think that mine are unaffected because I fed the heck out of them early and had good mite treatment.

Re: 2014 die off

one problem I can see is take all there honey sell it feed them back sugar.give them mono crop pollen source.take there honey feed them sugar to winter over with.now put that in human situation get a human feed them sugar or candy then only feed human one type of food then go through winter on candy see how long the human lives.

Re: 2014 die off

Yup. Now I'm going to sell my bees to Frank. Your Post jumped in front of my reply to Frank. I guess all my years keeping bees has fogged my eyesight and ability to think. I'm gonna start all over and quit every three years so I can always be a second year beekeeper. Y'all know what Randy Oliver says about second year beekeepers, right?

Re: 2014 die off

Bad nutrition = more vectored viruses
dont forget the importance of mite control

That was my last sentence..."Viruses, or mite vectored viruses." That is what many, myself included, attribute the cause of the dieoffs to.

But is homebrew, "shop towels", which I assume is an unpermitted use of a strong miticide, what should be promoted?

I have admitted for years that my losses are probably attributable to lack of treatments. So this year I treated nine with 1/2 doses of MAQS, which killed 2 marginal queens. My overall losses at outyards last year was 28%. Can't say that MAQS improved my loss ratio enough to convince me to continue.

Re: 2014 die off

I can vouch for Hystad, been to his yard and seen the results of some of his breeder queens, he is no spring chicken to bee keeping and a heck of a nice guy to boot!!

I have to agree with Honey-4-all on this, nutrition has a huge effect on bee survival I believe, and also mite treatments at the right time.
This year was a learning year for me, just like the last 3 years have been. I didn't throw sub on early enough or treat for mites early enough I believe.
As for stores, all hives had plenty and are bringing in nectar right now from what I believe is a Eucalyptus bloom.

But after going back out to the trailer again today,
I found one more dead out that had a very small cluster of dead bees and no sign of the queen...........but there was also a patch of comb that contained eggs laid by a queen,
not a laying worker?

Opened up another hive and there was barely a fistful size cluster, I took out the frame and found the queen still alive, but not a single egg. I ended up shaking the bees out and put the queen
in a queen cage to take home to show the kids and practiced picking her off a frame of comb and also marked her for practice. Atleast the kids got to enjoy handling her and I got to be
comfortable handling a queen.

So my final count of live hives so far is 11. The new year will find me becoming a much better beekeeper instead of a bee haver. Its time to get serious
and quit being lazy and/or cheap.

Re: 2014 die off

Here in new zealand we have reasonably large beekeeping operations with many putting bees into orchards for pollination as well as producing honey.
We dont have widespread mite resistance problems with only a few areas starting to see problems.
We dont have large scale dieoffs here.

I think when we get resistant mites throughout the country our dieoffs will be just as big as yours.
I would guess that Australia would also have very few unexplained dieoffs and they are varroa free.

Re: 2014 die off

One question to ask is what people consider high losses now? I think most people are familiar with the idea that 10% is considered 'normal loss' but is that an antiquated figure? Is 15-30% the new norm? If we are hitting 2-3 crops for pollination and maybe even lucky to make honey during that time then are higher losses more acceptable especially when there is always a certain loss associated with moving bees.

Personally, when I'm looking at dead outs there never seems to be an "aha" moment where I can pinpoint an exact culprit. Malnutrition? I would have to say no (at least for my colonies). Pulled off quite a few dead outs with brood chambers packed with honey and pollen...still dead bees. Same colony that looked like a huge colony a month before when the honey was coming off.

Mites? maybe. Pesticides? maybe. What baffles me is that the colonies sitting right next door on the pallet were subjected to all the same factors during the year and they are still alive and looking good.

Re: 2014 die off

No different than us humans. What genetic traits are expressed on any given scenario. If we or the bees are under ideal nutritional and environmental conditions with a low stress life A max life can be expected. But those days are past on every level for the time being.

Re: 2014 die off

Is 15-30% the new norm? ................Same colony that looked like a huge colony a month before when the honey was coming off.

What baffles me is that the colonies sitting right next door on the pallet were subjected to all the same factors during the year and they are still alive and looking good.

If you can answer this one my friend and are willing to share the solution you have found I can bet that a long vacation on any tropical Isle of your choosing will be heartily funded by myself and 1000 other cluck heads on this quest who were ten steps behind you. You have no clue how I would love to pay for the whole trip by myself. Find the correct answer and the tan time will be scheduled even if I need to sell my last hive to make it happen !!!!!!!!!

Re: 2014 die off

Re: 2014 die off

Loss of a queen in early winter is often because of nosema. Is anyone having a problem with early winter queen death who also treated for nosema? Or is this mostly an issue in colonies that were not treated for nosema? Are the affected bees confined to the hive by cold? Or are they able to fly fairly regularly?

Re: 2014 die off

Originally Posted by odfrank

That was my last sentence..."Viruses, or mite vectored viruses." That is what many, myself included, attribute the cause of the dieoffs to.

Don’t overlook the direct impact of mite parasitism too. Viruses are surely a factor but….if your hives have many thousands of mites sucking hemolymph from your developing workers…this too takes a heavy toll. Shorter life expectancy, loss of vigor and increased susceptibility to every other pressure….add viruses and you have a toxic mix.

Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted. - Emerson